Following Sacramento Shooting and Alton Sterling Decision, Norton Announces Bill to Create Local Task Forces on 21st Century Policing
WASHINGTON, D.C.—After the recent police shooting of an unarmed African American man in Sacramento, California last week and the decision yesterday by Louisiana officials not to press charges against Baton Rouge officers who shot and killed Alton Sterling, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced she will introduce her bill to establish a grant program from existing Department of Justice funds to create local Task Forces on 21st Century Policing. The grants would encourage states and localities to begin implementation of former President Obama's 2015 "Task Force on 21st Century Policing" report and bring police, community representatives and public officials together to identify local policing issues and best policing practices.
"It is unconscionable that Congress has done nothing to help deter police-involved shootings as unarmed African Americans are disproportionately gunned down in streets across the nation," Norton said. "Congress has the capacity to take meaningful action to help prevent these shootings. Policing, of course, is fundamentally a local issue, but Congress can play an instrumental role by providing states and localities with access to grants to bring communities and police to the same table so that together they can craft solutions that fit each community. For too long, Congress has sat idly by while the scourge of what the public sees as racial profiling shootings goes unaddressed. My bill provides a path forward."